WARNING – THIS IS A RANT! I shutter to realize the number of people in this world today that don’t take into account what they need to do to really take care of their family. From the time my Big Bubby was born until the day he was taken from us, we always had life insurance on him. We also have it on our other two children, my husband and myself.

It is sad for me to see the number, just since we lost our dear Big Bubby, how many people don’t have life insurance or a savings available for the unimaginable. It is a tough topic to discuss,  I get that, but it is one that in reality should happen.

I understand those that have babies that are newly born that you haven’t had a chance to get insurance on, but older children and even parents of those children who don’t take the responsibility to cover their lives with life insurance. It costs little to nothing to cover a child and young parents. No matter how old your child is, I believe it is a parent’s responsibility to continue to cover that child until they are able to cover themselves.

From a parent who has gone through the horrific phone call, through funeral arrangements, to burial to the aftermath of repairing the vehicle, I am so glad that my husband and I were able to cover ourselves and our children all their lives. To this day, I still have policies on our children. They are not large policies but they are policies that will be enough to take care of final resting places if the need ever arises (please God I can’t go through this again though).

The last thing as a parent who just found out they no longer will watch their precious child grow up,  is to have to worry about how to pay for your babies (whether 5 months old, 8 years old, or 24 years old) funeral.

I can honestly say that during our worst hours, the last thing on any of our minds including Cowgirls was how the cost would be covered. My husband and I had let her know the night we got in that Big Bubby was taken care of.

The other item that wasn’t as important with our son as they had just started their lives but for others, you must have a will and testament. If you have large values of assets that would go into probate, you must make sure that you write your last will and testament while you are of sound mind and body. In the event you are taken from this earth too soon, your loved ones will know what you want done. This includes trying to make hard decisions like what you want done with your remains, do you want cremated, do you want buried, if so where, what type of service do you want? These are all things that if you take care of prior to leaving this earth, the loved ones left behind don’t have to worry about what to do, you have already made it clear in your planning what you want.

Luckily for us, my son had a discussion with his wife and my husband shortly before his accident so we knew two things, no cremation and  no being buried in southwest Oklahoma. If those types of conversations had not been had, we would have struggled to make those decisions on our own.

When life puts you in the situation of burying a 24 year old child the last thing that you want to have to sit across from a funeral home director and try to second guess what your child would want. All you are wanting right at that moment is for him to walk through the door and say it was a big mistake and he is alright.

Be smart, talk to an estate planner, talk to a lawyer, someone who can help you ensure your family is protected in the event something happens to you or one of your children. Make sure you have enough coverage to cover all costs associated with the funeral, burial, and the placement of the headstone. So that you can grieve the loss and not worry about the other things that come with the loss.